Tom Odell - Monsters (2021) [Official Digital Download]

Since the release of his 2013 debut album ‘Long Way Down’ Chichester singer-songwriter Tom Odell has made a name for himself in releasing pleasantly uneventful indie-pop love songs. Whipping up stirring emotion through a series of piano-pounds and fist-clenching choruses – and the snarl of his powerful vocal – Odell ranked among a series of male pop artists who seem engineered for commercial success, but tread little new ground with their galumphing heartbreak ballads. Eight years and three Odell albums later, the direction of the most exciting pop has shifted towards genre-slippy, sample-heavy music – mainstream pop records now take on a more experimental structure, often punctuated by conceptual interludes and hip-hop inspired production. And armed with a white vest top and a Moog synth, fourth album ‘Monsters’ is Tom Odell’s attempt at getting involved and shaking things up.

Led by an ominous refrain (“you’re just a monster,” he insists on ‘Monster v.2’, “just a monster and I’m not scared”) ‘Monsters’ is both darker and rawer than anything Odell has done before – often, he delves into the anxiety and strangeness of being in the public eye, and the expectation that an artist dish out their own personal pain to shift records: “I tell my secrets, to stay employed,” he admits on ‘Money’, “they pull the string back and I make a noise.” The frantic murmuring of interlude ‘Problem’ pulls from emo rap, voiced by insistent denial: “I haven’t got a drinking problem” a muffled, helium-vocal insists. It’s intriguing to hear the veneer pulled back.

TRACKLIST

01. Tom Odell - numb
02. Tom Odell - over you yet
03. Tom Odell - noise
04. Tom Odell - money
05. Tom Odell - tears that never dry
06. Tom Odell - monster v.2
07. Tom Odell - lockdown
08. Tom Odell - lose you again
09. Tom Odell - fighting fire with fire
10. Tom Odell - problems
11. Tom Odell - me and my friends
12. Tom Odell - country star
13. Tom Odell - by this time tomorrow
14. Tom Odell - streets of heaven
15. Tom Odell - don't be afraid of the dark
16. Tom Odell - monster v.1



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